2019 Honda Civic Best Buy Review

IT’S A BEST BUY BECAUSE:

The Honda Civic lineup offers a broad range of trim levels and body styles to suit a variety of tastes and budgets, and all of them are practical, economical, refined, and fun to drive.

BUT…

Despite the broad model lineup, not all trim levels are offered in all body styles.

WORTH NOTING:

Honda also sells a super-performance Type R version of the Civic that has a 306-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter 4-cylinder and racetrack-focused equipment inside and out. The Civic Type R comes only as a hatchback and is priced around $35,000.

WHAT IS IT?

The Civic is Honda’s popular compact car. It was redesigned for 2016 in coupe and sedan form, and gained a 4-door hatchback body style for 2017. Trim levels differ a bit by body style, but mainly stick to Honda’s traditional LX, Sport, EX, EX-L, and Touring models. The base engine is a 158-hp 2.0-liter 4-cylinder that is offered in sedans and coupes. The step-up engine choice is a 174-hp turbocharged 1.5-liter four that is available on all body styles (it is rated at 180-hp on hatchback Sport models). The sporty Si models are offered only as coupes or sedans and come with a 205-hp version of the turbo 1.5 engine. Standard on most models is the Honda Sensing suite of safety features, which includes lane-departure warning, lane-keep assist, forward collision warning and mitigation, and adaptive cruise control.

WHAT’S NEW?

All 2019 Civics receive an updated available infotainment system that includes a volume knob and physical buttons (the previous system had touch-sensitive controls that were tedious to use). Among the other revisions are additional sound insulation, redesigned steering-wheel controls, and a new center-console cupholder. The coupe and sedan lineups get a mild styling facelift and the addition of a Sport trim level, and the non-Type R Hatchback models catch up to other Civics by offering Honda Sensing as standard equipment.

FUEL ECONOMY

Regardless of trim level, the Civic has commendable fuel economy for its respective levels of performance. The base 2.0-liter engine is EPA-rated at 25 mpg city/36 highway with the 6-speed manual transmission, and 30 city/38 highway with the CVT automatic. The turbocharged 1.5-liter engine is rated at 32 city/42 highway with the CVT automatic. EPA ratings for the coupe and hatchback body style or the Sport and Touring trim levels are 1-4 mpg lower across the board. In Consumer Guide® testing, a Touring sedan averaged 33.8 in 60-percent city driving, a Sport Touring hatchback averaged 30.7 mpg in 55-percent city driving, and a manual Si sedan averaged 32.5 mpg in 70-percent city driving.

VALUE IN CLASS

In any of its numerous permutations—from penny-pinching commuter to satisfyingly spicy sportster—the Civic offers excellent all-around refinement, an engaging driving personality, and laudable real-world fuel-economy numbers. All the body styles are spacious for the compact-car class, but we’re especially fond of the sporty-yet-extremely versatile hatchback.